Post con tag Apple

Not sure how exactly this slipped our neural net, perhaps it was added in a later update, but yesterday’s Bloomberg revelation about a potential Apple TV show rental service now also includes the following tip: Steve Jobs et al plan on hosting an event in San Francisco on September 7. This just so happens to be on a Tuesday and meshes perfectly with Apple’s annual Mac plus iPod touch promotion (which ends on the same day). Of course, we could’ve told you Apple would be holding an early September iPod refresh event this time last year — the real question is what else might be revealed during the keynote?

We’re not quite sure chip guru Mark Papermaster ever truly settled into his role as Apple’s SVP of Devices Hardware Engineering in the year and four months since he finally walked through the door, but after the recent antenna troubles someone decided that he wasn’t going to work there anymore. The New York Times reports that Papermaster has left and Bob Mansfeld (SVP of Mac Engineering) will assume his role. So far, there’s been no official statement as to why the departure is occurring, whether he was ousted or left of his own volition (again, though he oversaw the new iPhone, his background is in processor design) but either way, the former SVP’s picture and bio have already been removed from Apple’s website. The man himself reportedly refused to comment when contacted by the Times, but as with all truths we’re sure this one will come out eventually.

Fortune today shows the rapid accent of Macs in schools over the past five years, when ‘intent to purchase’ is measured. The figures show that Apple has essentially replaced Dell as the preferred laptop of choice in that time.

Barron’s reports on a new research note from BMO Capital analyst Keith Bachman claiming multiple new product releases for Apple next month, including several iPods as expected and two new MacBook Air models said to be scheduled to ship in high volumes.

For Apple’s iPod line, Bachman reports that the company will launch a new iPod touch, as well as a smaller iPod nano that could see the elimination of the iPod shuffle.

For starters, he sees the company launching two new iPods in September – a new Touch, and a new Nano. He says the Nano will be "much smaller" than past versions, and won’t have a physical track wheel.

The elimination of a physical navigation wheel would imply a move to a touch screen, and it is unclear what sort of interface Apple would use on such a device. A claimed 1.7-inch Apple touch screen surfaced early last month, but that screen would be significantly smaller than the current iPod nano’s 2.2-inch screen and its square aspect ratio would be a very significant departure from the current iPod nano’s widescreen display useful for handling video shot with the device’s integrated camera.

Bachman also matter-of-factly reports that Apple will launch two new MacBook Air models next month.

"We are not yet clear on all the specs, but supply chain checks suggest that unit shipments of the new Air products could far exceed the current Air, which we believe could suggest lower starting prices," he writes.

According to our Buyer’s Guide, the MacBook Air is long overdue for an update, having last seen a refresh in June 2009.One report has claimed that the MacBook Air will see a shift to an 11.6-inch display from the current 13.3-inch screen size in a revision set to debut before the end of the year.

We figured it would be time for Apple to finally stop their iOS devices from being Jailbroken on their own turf, so we did a quick Twitter search. It appears that when JailBreakMe.com is accessed on any device at an Apple Store, the DNS forward users back to Apple.com’s IP address.

Here are four examples of Twitter users claiming this to be true:

It makes sense as it is a pain in the a$$ to re-image those devices all the time. The joke was instantly old anyway.